Letters to the Editor: Open up to Cuba, discrimination, and FCAT

I visited Cuba a few weeks ago, and was surprised to find not only a wonderful island, but warm-hearted, happy, resilient, and, most important, just-plain folks working hard to maintain a sense of dignity.

One of our lecturers told us "changes are slow, but they are relentless." You can see those changes everywhere: houses for sale by individual owners; artisans markets (budding entrepreneurs); rooms for rent to tourists (using the Internet to advertise); and so much more.

For Cuban-Americans in Congress to say that Mariela Castro Espin "will spread communist propaganda to promote her father's regime" is absurd ("Castro daughter's U.S. visit stirs backlash," Orlando Sentinel, Friday). I feel it is time to lift the embargo and let the Cuban people show the world what they can do, if given half a chance.

Danielle T. Abbott Cocoa

All victims should get settlement funds

In response to "Last day to tell state how to spend $300M" in Monday's Sentinel: What Attorney General Pam Bondi should do is make certain these mortgage-settlement funds are shared by all victims of corrupt mortgage practices.

The banks singled out are now heralding that they will use these penalty funds to offer special benefits to their own client base. This is unfair, since all banks engaged in corrupt mortgage practices, and the settlement funds should not be used by the same banks to make restitution to a particular segment of damaged borrowers.

Bondi should make certain that refinancing and other mortgage remedies using these funds are offered to all like borrowers on the same terms.

Frank J. Wood Clermont

It's time to stop this stupid discrimination

Two people of the same gender marrying has no effect upon my life. Their lifestyle and their commitment to the point of wanting to marry should not be a public-policy issue. Public policy denies Mormons the right to marry several people at once. Even if I find polygamy abhorrent, it affects me not. I remember when some thought it abhorrent for people of different races and ethnicities to marry. How stupid is that?

Today, many Muslims find it objectionable for Muslims to marry Christians. Some Catholics find marrying Protestants to be abhorrent. Even today some Baptists find marrying Episcopalians to be a crazy thing to do.

In this country, predicated on freedom and moving ever so slowly toward equality, it is time to separate real public policy from what some wrote, to mostly illiterate people, two millennia before humans walked on the moon.

This country is far ahead of others in so many ways, and yet it is in the Dark Ages in others with its penchant for stupid discrimination. Discriminate, if you must, but practice your bias based on character, not race, gender, origin, religious belief or nonbelief, or ethnicity.

America should move much more rapidly toward equality and just as rapidly away from socially conservative, fundamentalist, Inquisition-witch-burning-crusade thinking.

Choice Edwards Clermont

Take TV seriously — at your own peril

I have not watched TV in a long time. It became a bore, especially watching one commercial after another. The computer quickly took over my attention for information and just about everything else. Let's face it: There's no comparison between what a computer and a TV can do, or even a daily newspaper, for that matter.

However, I recently moved into a community where cable TV is made available for every household. I turned it on one evening, and I was floored.

I never thought TV programs could be so dirty, angry, mean and politically vicious. I mean "The Rachel Maddow Show." "The Ed Show." "The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell." That's what they are — shows. They are not to be taken seriously, except at your peril.

They all hate three things with a passion: Republicans and people who make a lot of money. All of them are tied up in knots because some people make more money than others — as if that's a crime. The third is Mitt Romney.

I wonder what they make compared to most people? I would respect them if they announced their paycheck is whatever the average salary in the country is.

Last week's debacle of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test writing scores has put our testing system under a much-deserved microscope. As a veteran teacher, I believe we should be held accountable for teaching the standards in ways that allow all of our students to learn.

However, I feel blindsided by the Florida Department of Education. We knew the FCAT was changing, so we sought out any information we could get on the changes our students would face. There were some subtle differences.